Anoka County Board affirms that Anoka County is NOT a sanctuary County

 This months Anoka County News magazine has an article entitled "Non-Sanctuary Resolution Affirms Rule of Law."

This is a breath of fresh air to see local elected officials like the Anoka County Commissioners, County Attorney Brad Johnson and Anoka County Sheriff Brad Wise enforcing the law and protecting citizens in the face of so much media backlash on immigration enforcement.

So what does this look like? I spoke to Anoka County Commissioner John Heinrich on the phone and confirmed these facts. 

If a person is arrested and booked into the Anoka County Jail ICE has access to inmate bookings and ICE will notify them if a non-citizen has an immigration Warrant or Detainer.

The Anoka County Jail will not hold an inmate beyond their normal release just on the basis of an ICE Detainer, but ICE will be notified of an inmates pending release if there is a Detainer so they can take them into custody. 

I worked for 26 years in the Hennepin County Jail and we used to hold inmates for ICE on detainers all the time. Generally at about 9 AM every morning ICE would come and pick 2 or 3 people with immigration holds and take them to an Immigration Judge in Bloomington. They had a hearing at 11 AM and the judge would decide whether to hold them or not. Then at some point we got a letter from Sheriff Rich Stanek and Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman (if memory serves 2014) stating we could no longer hold inmates for ICE on a Detainer. The practice became that ICE would be notified of their release and if they got there in time they arrested them, if not they walked free. 

This practice creates a public safety threat. An inmate on an ICE detainer can be anyone from someone who overstayed a student VISA to someone wanted for murder in another country. Now they might walk free. This also means ICE has to go into the community and find them creating a safety issue for ICE agents and others who may be present.

Sadly this dangerous practice is enforced by recent Court rulings. In 2017 Anoka County got fined $30,000 for holding an inmate for ICE after being booked in after a traffic accident! This lawsuit was filed by the ACLU.

Currently Carver County is fighting both the ACLU and MN Attorney General Keith Ellison on this very issue. Here's the lawsuit. I hope Carver County prevails and common sense can again rule the day. The ACLU and Keith Ellison seem more concerned with non-citizens then public safety.

Sheriff's take an oath of office to uphold both the Minnesota Constitution and the United States Constitution. I believe holding someone in the Country illegally for ICE serves both of those. 

There is a misnomer that cooperating with ICE is somehow not local law enforcements job. Critics claim that local law enforcement are stopping and holding people for ICE. This is simply not true. A local cop or Sheriff's Deputy can't arrest someone solely on being an illegal alien. But if they are arrested on a local or State crime they certainly should honor an Immigration detainer just like they honor Holds for other Counties and States.

Hopefully Carver County is victorious in this lawsuit and the safer practice of holding illegal aliens with an ICE Detainer will again become reality. Until then it's refreshing to see County's like Anoka cooperating as much as they can with ICE.